Point of Reference

Today's been a good day at the conference so far. I'm currently in my second session on online news. It's only partly on topic (yesterday's session on political engagement online was more instrumentally helpful), but it has been interesting so far.

The current paper is a comparison of gender portrayal in pictures in English online news and Russian online news. Not surprisingly, there are lots more pictures of men.

I haven't made it to Millenium Park yet, which I really want to do, but I did make it to the Ghiradelli store where I picked up some dark chocolate for my upcoming chocolate taste test. I've also made it to the book store, and plan to return tonight to pick up a new book for the plane ride home. (I actually didn't go out planning to hit the bookstore--there aren't many differences in the books available--but it was conveniently located right next to the chocolate store, and once I was there, I couldn't resist going in.)

There's a spider living in my office. This is the third day I've seen it hanging around. I tried killing it yesterday, but failed, and felt so guilty about its apparent injuries that I haven't had the heart to try again. So it crawls over my desk and across the wall in front of me, and it's kind of cute, except that I suspect it might be one of those poisonous-yet-common household spiders that I recently learned live in Ontario.

I need to read nine articles on discourse analysis today.

I spent a lovely weekend doing a little bit of work and a lot of hanging out with B watching "Firefly." We went through seven episodes in two days; I don't think I've ever seen B sit still for that long before when he wasn't working. I'm happy that my plan to addict him to the show worked better than my (failed) plan to addict him to "Buffy," especially since I now have someone to go see Serenity with someone who will actually want to watch it.

Today was spent paying bills and working on my SSHRC proposal. This is the last year I'm eligible for SSHRC, and thus the last year I have to apply. While it will be nice not to have this hanging over my head next September, it's a little sad that I never succeeded in actually getting a SSHRC. Ah well; maybe this year will be better.

I made an optometrist appointment today. I decided to go with a new doctor since the last one I used is over an hour away, and so they gave me a new patient info sheet to fill out and bring with me when I show up for the appointment. One of the things I was asked was whether I have any family history of glaucoma, cataracts, blindness, macular degeneration, or diabetes.

I had to say yes to every single one of those.

One of my favourite things about vacations is the way they reset everything, breaking down old, fruitless schedules and creating the possibility for more productive patterns. With that in mind, I spent an hour or so yesterday coming up with a new schedule for the fall. This schedule is a little more general and flexible than many of my old schedules. I'm hoping that means I'll actually be able to stick to this one. So far it's worked pretty well, apart from a moderately bad headache that led to me going home for a long nap this afternoon.

On a very happy note, I got paid today for the government report I wrote. Yay! Even though several people have told me that I'm being underpaid for the work I did (and they may be right, but since the rest of the money went to fund the project we were working on rather than to line someone else's pocket, I won't worry too much about it), it's still a nice bonus. Now I need to decide if I'm going to spend any of it, and if so, on what. I'll probably put off major purchases since I still don't know what my financial situation will look like this year (and I really wish they'd tell us a little earlier how much money we're getting and from where).

( And speaking of vacations, the next stage of my trip: New York. )

Philadelphia:

- We had a really cool 24-hour diner about a block from our hotel and the waitress remembered us when we went back the second night.
- The hotel itself was quite nice, although the room was a bit small.
- There weren't that many sessions that interested me, unfortunately.
- B developed laryngitis the day before he presented, but still managed to pull it off. The mic helped.
- We hung out with both my friends and his, separately and jointly, and good times were had by all.
- We spent way too much time walking the docks in search of free jazz that never materialized and a recommended restaurant that was miles away form where it was supposed to be. Then we went to a Japanese steakhouse and watched them cook the food in front of us.
- The security around the historic sites was scary.

And now we're in New York. And exhausted after walking around Manhattan all day. And I'm going to sleep.

Once again I'm up past dawn, but I can now proudly announce that I'm finished one big project and a considerable number of small ones, all of which were due by the end of this week. This leaves me free to concentrate on the rewrite of my thesis into a much shorter book chapter, which I need to have done by Monday. Of course, this freedom will only last until NetworkGuy gets around to editing the two things I just sent him, and starts asking for clarification/requesting additional data/suggesting changes I should make. I'm giving myself until 9:00pm before I start receiving the emails.

Once Monday is over and the book chapter is either done or failed, I plan to return to the Long Lost Comp that was supposed to be my big project of the summer. Oh, and planning the vacation I'm taking at the end of August, but which I'm going to feel very guilty about.

The weather has cooled down considerably here, and it looks like our power has returned. For the past few days, the lights have been dimming and the fans slowing every ten minutes or so, which made me think the power supply in our house was rather precarious. Tonight, however, the my bedside light has shone without a flicker. Now if only they can either fix our a/c, or stop trying to run it...

It's a very difference experience spending the entire night working in my office (or the basement beneath my office) than spending the entire night working at home. As I was walking home this morning, I found my mind sliding back to the tutorial I'd run the night before, but it didn't feel like it had ended a full thirteen hours before. It felt close, as if I were still in the same evening, as if the time I spent working had been compressed so that my memory could skip over it and keep its connection with the previous night. I've never had that happen when I stayed up all night at home--there, I'm much more aware that a night has passed, although first light always catches me by surprise.

It's also strange to be walking home as everyone else is arriving for the day, even if it is just to shower and change rather than sleep.

The good news is that the report was well received, although I've been assigned yet more edits and more digging up numbers to back it up. I can probably get it done in a day, but it won't be today--I'm too tired now. Instead, I'm working on editing transcripts, which requires concentration but not much brainpower. I really just want to go home and sleep, but I'm determined to continue to be productive today.

B and I went out for Summerlicious at Canoe on Tuesday night. The restaurant is on the 54th floor of the TD Bank building, so it offers a fabulous view, even at 9:45, which was the only reservation we could get. (It was almost 10:00 before we were seated, in part, I suspect, because people were enjoying the view too much to leave their seats.) The ambience was also fabulous--all gold and white and plush and exposed brick; it was a great mix of rustic and luxurious. The food, sadly, was the most disappointing part of the evening. It was visually striking, but only okay tasting. It wasn't bad, but I've had better at much cheaper restaurants. The menu: hearts of romaine salad, pork tenderloin with summer squash and couscous, and a caramel butternut tart for dessert. I hope their regular fare is better than what they offered up for Summerlicious.

Last night I went over to AmericanAnglo's place for television night. Since we have neither "Alias" nor "The Amazing Race" to watch this summer, we've switched over to AmericanAnglo's extensive DVD collection, which has the advantage of making television night much more flexible, although a little less exciting. Right now we're slowly working our way through the first season of "Roswell." AmericanAnglo's new boyfriend joined us for TV night for the first time. There was general agreement among all present as to his high level of attractiveness, enthusiastically expressed the moment he stepped out the door. (FrenchWriter and his boyfriend pounced on AmericanAnglo for details as soon as NewGuy left. Admittedly, they were a bit drunk.) I'm hoping NewGuy turns out to be nice as well as cute; AmericanAnglo deserves it.

Today MasseyPrincess leaves for Montreal with friends, and I clean up the apartment for the weekend. I'm also going to be transcribing interviews, coding interview transcriptions, and working on editing the Heritage report. I'd like to get out to a Fringe Festival show, and probably to dinner, but apart from that, I suspect this is going to be largely a working-weekend.

I purchased a t-shirt with a skull and crossbones for my friend's four-month-old baby. While she loves it and her husband tolerates it, everyone else seems mildly (or not-so-mildly) horrified when I tell them about it. Personally, I think she should follow through on her first impulse and get a baby-sized black leather jacket and a baby-sized motorcycle to complete the look. Sadly, baby-sized motorcycles are very hard to find.

On a completely unrelated note, I desperately need to get my hair cut. And possibly highlighed, but mostly cut. Unfortunately, I don't know where in Toronto to go. Usually I just go to the Vidal Sassoon school, but I'm not sure I want quite that many layers, and they won't do the highlighting if I decide to go that route. How to find a salon...